The Eternal Hope for a Party Without the Hangover

But let's enjoy the moment, while hoping (and working, to the extent we can) for a much better follow-up this time around.  Because watching oppressed, benighted people celebrate a dictator being hauled off like the week's trash just feels good.  

With the ouster of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, many of Venezuela's people, including the eight million of the Venezuelan diaspora that's happened in the past decade or two, are finally having their day:

"We are free. We are all happy that the dictatorship has fallen and that we have a free country," said Khaty Yanez, a Venezuelan woman in Santiago who has spent the last seven years in Chile.

"My joy is too big," her compatriot Jose Gregorio said. "After so many years, after so many struggles, after so much work, today is the day. Today is the day of freedom."

Since 2014, 7.7 million Venezuelans or 20% of the population, have left the country, unable to afford food or seeking better opportunities abroad, according to the U.N. International Organization for Migration

While virtually every leftist politician on the planet has rushed to declare full support for dictator Nicolas Maduro…

…the Venezuelan people are out in the streets celebrating his downfall.

Let that sink in. pic.twitter.com/1EMBZePle0

— The British Patriot (@TheBritLad) January 4, 2026

While the radical left organizes protests against President Trump's swift, decisive action that ended Maduro's narco-socialist tyranny in Venezuela, real Venezuelans from Caracas to the diaspora in Miami and beyond, are pouring into the streets celebrating their newfound freedom… pic.twitter.com/Xf2UqQS4a4

— Freyja™ (@FreyjaTarte) January 3, 2026

Inevitably, the "No Kings" crowd were upset that (checks notes) a dictator had lost his job.   Some resorted to "progsplaining":

There's nothing funnier than an angry white liberal American woman telling the people of Venezuela how they should feel about the capture of the criminal dictator of Venezuela Nicholas Maduro 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/DJPx7YJjCz

— Vince Langman (@LangmanVince) January 4, 2026

And when the two met - actual Venezuelans versus white American progressives...:

Actual Venezuelans confront protesters in Times Square.

Paid protesters and getting hit with reality.

pic.twitter.com/VqYyBlsuKk

— Spitfire (@RealSpitfire) January 3, 2026

...and one lone, rather irate Spanish socialist in Madrid...

No hay un zurdo normal…
Damas y caballeros, os presento a la Podemita de Madrid, una española insultando a los venezolanos que festejan la caída de un dictador de su país… en fin… pic.twitter.com/kMifuEy3PR

— _DON_ BAIRES_⭐️⭐️⭐️ (@DonDrPr_4ever) January 4, 2026

...it didn't end well for the "No Kings But Plenty Of Dictators" crowd.  

One Venezuelan had some questions about the various western progs' motives and, er, level of information:

Venezuelan man:

“Those who say that the U.S. is only interested in our oil, I ask you: What do you think the Russians and the Chinese wanted here?

The recipe for arepas?" pic.twitter.com/BWpCmCxFGI

— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) January 4, 2026

I've had Arepas once or twice.  They're almost but not quite worthy of going to war over.  

And one Venezuelan journalist-in-exile has some advice for western journos writing about the evolution in her home country:

Great education.

Please stop using these 3 phrases when you talk about Venezuela.

From a Venezuelan journalist: pic.twitter.com/afk8LItlNj

— dahlia kurtz ✡︎ דליה קורץ (@DahliaKurtz) January 4, 2026

Don't have to ask me twice.  

As with Iraq, Lebanon and Libya, the hangover might overshadow the party.  

But I'm willing to be optimistic.  It's hard, but I'm going to give it a go.